Giuseppe Panza

Giuseppe Panza di Biumo (23 March 1923 – 24 April 2010) was one of the world's most prominent collectors of modern art. He lived in Milan and Varese, Italy.

Giuseppe Panza was born on March 23, 1923, in Milan. His father, Ernesto, was a wine distributor who invested in real estate and in 1940 was given the title of count by King Vittorio Emanuele III. He earned a law degree at the University of Milan in 1948 but never practiced. Instead, he built his career in the family businesses of wine distribution and property.

Panza died on 24 April 2010 in Milan.

Along with his wife Rosa Giovanna, Panza began building an art collection in 1956, when he bought a work by Antoni Tàpies. Initially, they focused on European and American painting and sculpture of the mid-1940s through early 1960s, purchasing works by European postwar artists such as Jean Fautrier and Tàpies, and American Abstract Expressionists such as Franz Kline and Mark Rothko. They were also among the first patrons of Pop art, purchasing 11 of Robert Rauschenberg’s “combines” of the mid-1950s, as well as works by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and James Rosenquist.

In 1966 the Panzas turned their attention to Minimalist and Conceptual Art. They were amongst the first to acquire the works of Hanne Darboven, Brice Marden, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, James Turrell, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Kosuth and many other major figures.

...
Wikipedia